The song segues into He sees his brother (who died in a car crash he caused). The brother plays piano in a burning church. Nicholas reaches for him. The keys turn to ash.
His father points to the moon. It has a clock face. plays softly. The moon ticks to 9:00 PM again. The second hand switches to forward. Epilogue: Finally Free?
He is behind the wheel of a car. The headlights show a deer in the road. He swerves. The last thing he hears is the opening piano chord of
His father appears. They fish on a still lake. His father says: “Son, you died in 1999. A car crash. This album is your coma. Dream Theater wrote it while you slept.” dream theater full album
plays. He fights shadow versions of the band — John Petrucci wields a guitar-neck sword, Jordan Rudess throws arpeggios like shuriken. He defeats them. Then “The Best of Times” starts.
The scene cuts to a funeral. His own. thrashes. He watches his body lowered into earth. But the coffin is a piano. His fingers are tied to the strings. Each dirt clod is a drum hit (Portnoy’s fill, endless).
Nicholas screams: “How long?”
He swallows it. Instead of death, he hears — his own fans screaming for encores. He is the prisoner of their applause. He must perform his own execution forever. Part Four: The Shattered Fortress (Systematic Chaos / Black Clouds & Silver Linings)
Nicholas puts on headphones. whispers: “Close your eyes and begin to relax.” He sees a past life: Victoria, 1928, a murder. He is her lover, Julian. But the hypnotist’s voice cracks: “You are not Julian. You are not Nicholas.”
hits. He stumbles into a bathroom. The mirror shows his face, but older, scarred. A razor blade floats in the sink. He whispers: “I’ve been here before.” The song segues into He sees his brother
He screams: “I just want to stop!”
The needle lifts. Silence. He is back in the white room. The album cover in his hands now shows his own face — young, old, dead, alive. He turns it over. The tracklist has only one song:
The Count of Tuscany’s Endless Sleep
